Something in the Water, page 29
“You got it, boss,” Carter said as she pressed up on her tiptoes and braced a hand on the edge of the counter as she stretched to pull the aforementioned binder closer.
With the three of them following Kate’s frighteningly precise schedule, the rest of the morning flew by in a haze of idle conversation, laughter, and the pleasant buzz that came from spending time with people who genuinely enjoyed each other’s company. It was, without a doubt, the absolute best Thanksgiving of Carter’s life so far, and she was so enchanted by the way Kate would steal a kiss or grab her butt when Maddie wasn’t looking that she genuinely forgot that other people would be joining them.
Which was why, when Kate’s phone rang while she and Maddie were monitoring the progress of the strawberry compote that would go on the cheesecake right before serving, she didn’t think twice about Kate answering with a pleased, “Oh, hi,” or the fact that she wandered out of the kitchen as she said it.
“Do you think it needs to thicken up a bit more?” Maddie asked.
Carter frowned and offered a little shrug. “You know better than I do, Mads. I’ve never made this before.”
Maddie shot her a look of pure disbelief. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. My mom hates cheesecake, so—”
“I didn’t think it was possible to hate cheesecake,” Maddie muttered, shaking her head. “Me and my mom have had nights where we’ve made one and just had it for dinner.”
Carter chuckled as her brain had no problem conjuring an image of Kate and Maddie on the sofa with a half-eaten cheesecake on the table in front of them and a movie on the TV. “That sounds like a freaking awesome idea. We totally need to do that.”
Maddie grinned and held up a fist for knuckles. “Deal.”
“Hell yeah,” Carter said as she tapped her fist to Maddie’s.
“Should I be worried?” Kate asked, her voice layered with warmth and ringing with amusement.
“Not at all. We were just…” Carter’s voice trailed off as she turned to look at Kate and saw two men she didn’t know standing behind her. “Oh.”
“Hey, Dad,” Maddie hollered, waving the wooden spoon she’d been using to stir the compote and flinging little drops of strawberry juice over the stovetop. “We’re finishing the strawberries for the cheesecake.”
“I see that,” the taller man on the left replied. He was conventionally handsome, standing a few inches taller than Kate—Carter estimated him to be around her height—with a lantern jaw, kind blue eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, and his dirty blond hair was streaked with bits of dull gray. He was also, Carter was relieved to note, dressed similarly in jeans and a long-sleeved button down in a blue checked pattern with the sleeves cuffed. He held Carter’s gaze as he strode into the kitchen with an outstretched hand. “You must be Carter. Grant Chambers.”
“That’s me,” Carter croaked, her stomach tightening with nerves as she shook his hand. It was a nice handshake, firm but not overpowering, and though her heart thundered in her throat, she forced a small smile. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“You, as well,” he replied with an easy smile. The crinkle in his eyes suggested he wanted to say something more, but instead he looked over his shoulder toward the shorter, good-looking man with brown hair and eyes to match, who looked to be somewhere between Carter and Kate age-wise, and said, “This is my husband, Brian.”
Brian lifted a hand and smiled genially. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Carter said, returning his wave.
Grant patted Carter’s hand that was still in his before letting it drop as he moved to pull Maddie into a one-armed hug. He peered into the sauce pot Maddie was tending. “Hey, monkey. Looks good.”
Feeling out of place, Carter shuffled aside and muttered, “I’ll let you two—”
“Nonsense.” Grant stepped back and waved a hand at the stove. “You two keep it up. I’ll put the pie in the fridge and start opening the wine we brought. Is red okay, Carter?”
Carter glanced at Kate. The knot of apprehension in her gut loosened at the sight of Kate’s warm smile. She looked back at Grant as she answered, “Red is preferred, honestly. Thanks.”
“Excellent.” Grant grinned and winked at her. “Coming right up. Mads, do you want a root beer? Brian got some of the special ones you like when he was in New Hampshire last week.”
“Yes, please!” Maddie chirped.
“Kate?”
“Like you even need to ask.” Kate sidled into the kitchen, and ran a hand over the small of Carter’s back before grabbing her hip. She leaned into her side to brush a kiss over her cheek en route to checking their progress on the sauce. “Looks nearly done,” she noted as she brought her other arm around Carter’s middle to wrap her in a light embrace.
Carter’s pulse slowed as she sank into Kate, and she resisted the urge to see if anyone besides Maddie—who was smiling with far too much fondness at the strawberry compote she was tending—as she draped an arm over Kate’s shoulders as she leaned into her to ask in a low voice, “Is everything okay?”
Kate’s eyes crinkled with her smile as she leaned in to kiss Carter softly. “Everything’s wonderful, darling.” She pecked her lips again. “I just wanted a hug.” Kate rolled her eyes when Maddie started to feign gagging, and flexed her arms around Carter’s waist as she warned her daughter, “Oh, shut it, you.”
“What?” Maddie protested.
“You know what,” Kate quipped, using her hold on Carter’s waist to push her sideways to bump Maddie.
“Hey!” Carter laughed when Maddie rolled her eyes and aimed a playful elbow at her middle. “Can you two maybe hash this out on your own so I don’t get beat up in the process?”
Without missing a beat, Kate and Maddie answered “No” in perfect unison as a fit of giggles overtook them.
“I’m afraid you’re stuck with us, darling,” Kate murmured, sealing the words with a sweet kiss that made Carter’s heart skip a beat. She rubbed a hand over Carter’s stomach as she pulled away when Grant appeared with two glasses of wine, and she spun to lean against the counter beside Carter as she sipped at her glass. “Oh, this is lovely.”
“I would hope so.” Grant smiled at Kate as he handed Carter hers. “It’s from that winery you said we, quote, ‘absolutely had to visit’ when we took that trip to the Pacific Northwest last summer.”
Kate grinned, looking as comfortable as could be as she caught Carter’s eye. “Spectrum is a gorgeous little vineyard in Southern Washington, and the owner and her wife are just incredible. Missy, Joan, and I discovered it on a girl’s weekend a couple of years ago.”
Feeling entirely out of her element, the best Carter could offer was a polite, “Ah.”
“Have you met the terrible twosome?” Grant asked Carter.
Carter smiled at the nickname and nodded. “Yeah.”
“She actually met them before we’d even begun dating,” Kate shared.
“And they didn’t scare her off?” Grant doffed an imaginary cap in Carter’s direction. “Well done. It took me a year to earn Missy’s approval.”
“Oh…” Carter blushed. “Well…”
“It took Carter maybe two minutes,” Kate shared. “It was, quite frankly, a little frightening.”
“I’ll bet,” Grant chuckled.
Carter bit her lip and decided to hide in plain sight by checking the compote’s progress as Maddie lifted the spoon she’d been stirring with to watch the way the fruit sluiced off of it. “I think that’s done, Mads.”
“Yeah, me too,” Maddie agreed as she turned off the burner and moved the pot off the heat. She set the spoon on the spoon-rest beside the stove and rounded on her father with a grin. “Wanna play Mario Kart?”
Grant pursed his lips in playful contemplation. “Depends. Can I be Toad?”
“No, Carter’s always Toad. You can be Yoshi, though. I’ll be Luigi.”
“Mads, maybe…” Carter started to argue, but her voice trailed off when Grant shot her a look that said don’t worry about it.
Kate smiled around the rim of her wineglass when Carter looked to her for backup and inclined her head toward the family room. “Go play, darling. Once I put the turkey in, we’ve got a few hours before anything else needs to be done.”
“You’re sure?” Carter asked.
Kate nodded. “Positive. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
Carter took a deep breath and turned to Maddie and Grant. “All right. I guess I’m playing.”
Maddie cheered and clapped her hands happily before grabbing Carter by the arm and all but hauling her into the other room as she lectured, “You have to watch out for him because he will totally stock up on shells to take you out.”
“That’s not cheating, Mads,” Grant argued as he followed at a much more sedate pace. “That’s the game. You’re just mad because I kicked your butt on the Rainbow Road last time.”
Carter pursed her lips to keep from smiling at the thoroughly unimpressed he’s totally lying look Maddie gave her. She cast one last look at Kate in the kitchen, her heart giving a happy little flutter at the unadulteratedly joyous smile lighting Kate’s face, and then promptly tripped over her own feet when Kate winked and blew her a kiss, just barely catching herself before she spilled wine everywhere.
“You okay there, Carter?” Grant chuckled as she quickly righted herself.
Carter’s eyes slid from Grant’s amused smirk back to Kate, who was looking back at her with so much affection that it was all she could do to not say ‘fuck it’ to the game and go back to taste her beautiful smile. “Yeah. I’m great.”
“Come on, Mads,” Carter said as she began gathering the dirtied dessert plates. “Help me with these dishes.”
Maddie, who was showing Brian a reel on her phone, looked up with a plaintive look. “We did the dishes last night.”
Kate smiled and placed a gentle hand on Carter’s thigh to get her attention. “I can help.”
Carter lifted Kate’s hand from her leg to brush a kiss across her knuckles. “We got it.” She caught Maddie’s eye. “Right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Maddie grumbled as she set her phone face-down on the table and got to her feet. “But the whole ‘she cooked so we clean’ thing doesn’t really work here because we’re the ones who made dessert!”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Carter teased, drawing a rumbling wave of laughter from everyone except Maddie. She brushed one more kiss over Kate’s knuckles before letting it go with a small smile. “You just relax,” she insisted as she stacked hers, Kate’s, and Grant’s plates and gathered their silverware. “We’ll be right back,” she added as she stood and, picking up her small collection, directed Maddie into the kitchen with a small tilt of her head.
“Wow,” Grant chuckled as the pair made their way into the kitchen. “I never thought I’d see the day our daughter voluntarily did the dishes.”
“I don’t know if I’d call that ‘voluntarily’,” Kate murmured as she dragged her attention away from the way Carter had added a couple of extra cuffs to her sleeves so that they now strained against the swell of her biceps to look back at Grant. Heartened by the quiet joy and complete lack of judgment in his expression, she shared, “She and Maddie do the dishes most nights.”
“Oh?” Grant’s easy smile turned just a little mischievous as he asked, “And how often is ‘most nights’?”
Kate rolled her eyes and smiled in spite of herself. “Nearly every night for the last two weeks. Unless Maddie was with you guys, and then it was just the two of us.”
“Oh…” Grant’s eyes drifted back to Carter at the sink.
“I’ll uh…” Brian cleared his throat softly. “I’ll go help them with the dishes.”
“You don’t—” Kate started to argue, but cut herself off when Brian shook his head and got to his feet.
A small smile bowed Brian’s lips. “I don’t mind. And I think you two need a moment.” He arched a brow at Grant. “Yeah?” When Grant nodded, he patted his shoulder once before ambling into the kitchen with a boisterous, “Reinforcements have arrived! Maddie, run for your life!”
“Thank god!” Maddie cried dramatically.
Kate couldn’t help but mirror the playful grin on Carter’s face as she tried to get Maddie to stay while Brian encouraged her to rebel. Their back-and-forth was so carefree and easy that one would have thought they’d been doing this for years. The trio’s laughter as Carter successfully countered every attempt Brian made to spring Maddie free was contagious, and Kate’s heart swelled as she watched the future she’d never dared to wish for play out in real-time.
Even if she’d dreamt of this moment, it certainly wouldn’t have included Carter flinging a handful of soap bubbles at Maddie’s face with a dramatic, “Fine! Go ahead and leave!” that would have been over-the-top on even the worst midday soap opera.
The look of shock on Maddie’s face when the bubbles found their target was hilarious, and when Maddie’s surprise morphed into a devilish smirk, Kate dearly wished she had her phone on her to record whatever happened next.
Maddie stared down Carter as she scooped the bubbles from her face and then, with a quick feint, dashed in to smash them on top of Carter’s head. The moment her attack succeeded, Maddie promptly hauled ass out of the kitchen in a fit of uncontrollable giggles while Carter ruffled her hands through her hair as she hollered after her, “Oh, it’s on now, baby girl! Just you wait!”
Still chuckling, Carter shook her head at Brian, who was chuckling after Maddie, and reached into the sink to gather bubbles to flick in his direction. Carter cackled at his undignified squeak when the bubbles hit their mark, and then tossed a dish towel at his face before returning to her dishwashing.
“You know,” Kate mused as Brian grabbed a handful of bubbles from the sink to fling Carter’s way before promptly holding up his hands in a sign of surrender, “I think the three of them are going to be trouble.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Grant agreed, sniggering. “But I’m pretty sure we’re stuck with them.”
Kate shot him a playful grin. “I guess there are worse things, huh?”
“Indeed.” Grant’s eyes softened. He sighed and shook his head. “You know, I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw you this happy.”
Kate’s heart squeezed as her gaze drifted back to the woman responsible for that joy. Dramatics clearly forgotten, Carter was smiling and chatting with Brian as they took care of the remaining dishes. She licked her lips as she turned her attention back to her ex-husband. “I am very happy.”
“Good. That’s all I’ve wanted for you.” Grant smiled. “And, while my opinion doesn’t matter, I like her. We both do.”
Tears stung at the backs of Kate’s eyes. She hadn’t been joking when she told Carter that she didn’t care if Grant approved of their relationship, but she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been a little worried. Even if she and Grant hadn’t remained close friends, as Maddie’s father, he was an indelible part of their lives, but Carter was already just as much a fixture of her life, and she desperately wanted the two halves to fit together. “Yeah?”
“Oh, Kate,” Grant sighed as he moved to sit in Maddie’s vacated chair next to her. He took her hands into his and rubbed his thumbs over the backs of them. “I knew from the few things you shared, and the way Maddie raved about her that she was something special, but seeing you two together?” A small, almost sad smile quirked his lips as he shook his head. “Kate, you’re fucking glowing.” His shoulders lifted and fell with a breath, emotion filling his eyes as he squeezed her hands gently. “She’s good for you.”
While Kate was sure he was exaggerating on the first part, she agreed to the second with a whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. I’m…” Grant caught his lower lip between his teeth and worried it for a moment before releasing it with a sigh. “I’m happy for you, Kate. Truly. I… I know I screwed things up, and I know I made your life harder than it should have been, and…” His voice trailed off, and he lifted a hand to wipe at his eyes. “I am just so goddamn proud of you for being brave enough to love again.”
The tears Kate had been fighting broke free at the sight of his. “I never said I—”
“Kate, it’s written all over your face.” Grant smiled and inclined his head toward the kitchen. “And it’s written all over hers, too.”
Kate wiped at her tears as her gaze drifted to Carter. “She’s just so…” Her voice trailed off as Carter looked up in the middle of handing a dish off to Brian and saw her. Carter’s carefree expression faded into instant concern as their gazes locked, and Kate offered her a soft smile as she shook her head to assure her that she was fine. Carter clearly misunderstood the gesture, however, because she wiped her hands off on a dishtowel and, after a brief word to Brian—who immediately shot an oh shit look toward her and Grant—she started toward her.
“Protective,” Grant noted in an approving tone.
“It would appear so,” Kate hummed. Her heart fluttered at the steel that crept into Carter’s bearing as she drew closer. She’d never needed a champion—she’d never wanted one—but she wasn’t opposed to Carter filling that role. And it was especially endearing given that she knew how worried Carter had been about making a good impression. Once Carter was close enough, she reached out to run a soothing hand along her forearm. “Hey, you.”
Carter’s posture softened by a fraction at the greeting, but concern still furrowed her brow as she stared at Grant. “Is everything okay?”
Kate didn’t miss the impressed glint that flickered in Grant’s eyes. Carter had already won him over, but this cemented the deal. She took Carter’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “Everything’s fine,” she assured her softly. “We were just talking.”
Carter bit her lip and ducked her head. “Right. Sorry,” she murmured.
Kate lifted Carter’s hand to her lips to kiss her knuckles, and there was no containing her smile when Carter’s gaze found hers through the dark veil of her lashes. “Thank you for looking out for me.”
